As season 3 of Game of Thrones starts casting, it has finally been announced that the supporting role of Mance Rayder has been cast. Mance Rayder should be well known to any fans reading the George RR Martin novels, but even fans who are watching the TV show only have likely heard the name, as it refers to the ‘evil wilding’ that rules north of the wall and plays villain to the brothers of the Nightwatch. So who will portray Rayder in the 3rd season of Game of Thrones? Why it’ll be Irish actor Ciarán Hinds playing Mance Rayder, who some of you might remember as Julius Caesar in HBO’s Rome or Aberforth Dumbledore in the 7th and 8th Harry Potter films, amongst many other great roles. Humorously, Hinds wont be the only Rome veteran playing a role in the next season of Game of Thrones, so lets begin sharing just who will play who for season 3.

Many major roles have already been cast for season 3 of the series, which covers the first part of the 3rd book in Martin’s Song of Icen and Fire, Storm of Swords. The only problem is that some of these roles exist for characters that should have already been introduced in the television series had HBO stayed closer to the source material. So below we have for you all a small listing of the actors and actresses playing various characters in season 3, a fairly spoiler free description of who the characters are, and some info on the actors themselves:

 

First up is Tobias Menzies who portrays Lord Edmure Tully of Riverrun. Edmure is Catelyn’s younger brother and first appeared in book 1 of the series, when King Robb Stark freed Riverrun. Edmure is next in line for lordship of Riverrun, but with little of the show’s first 2 seasons taking place there, it is understandable why we haven’t seen him yet. Tobias Menzies is our other ex-HBO’s Rome actor, who portrayed Brutus alongside Hinds’ Caesar. The two actors will not be interacting on this show however.

 

 

 

Lady Olenna Tyrell, otherwise known as ‘The Queen of Thorns’ , will make her introduction in season 3 of Game of Thrones just as she would have in the book. The sharped tongue old woman plays mother to Mace Tyrell, the head of House Tyrell, and grandmother to Loras ‘the knight of flowers’ Tyrell and Margaery Tyrell (who wed Renly Baratheon last season). She will be portrayed by Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg (Diana Rigg), who was once a stunning English sex symbol that played Emma Peel on The Avengers and Tracy Di Vicenzo in the classic James Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Diana will also be making an appearance in series 7 of Doctor Who, just adding to roster of awesome Geek roles.

 

 

A surprise casting and character appearance comes in the form of Mackenzie Crook as the wilding skinchanger, Orell. Why is this surprising on both ends? Well first off, Mackenzie, who made his fame as Gareth Keenan in The Office and Ragetti in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, is a very tiny guy you wouldn’t think could survive long in the cold north of the wall. But more surprising is Orell’s appearance in season 3 at all, considering his character should be long dead at this point in the story. In the second book of the series, Clash of Kings, which was basically season 2 of the show, Orell is killed by Jon Snow when he meets Ygritte. The character only even really gets a name because he dies while inhabiting the body of an eagle (as he is a skinchanger/warg and is able to transfer his mind into the bodies of animals he is connected with) and Ygritte bitches about it for much of her time with Jon. The only reason I can think for Orell to appear in season 3 is he will be merged with another skinchanger character from the third book, Varamyr Sixskins, who is one of Mance Rayder’s close allies and the inheritor of Orell’s eagle. This makes sense considering the role Varamyr has in Martin’s most recent book and the desire to put a bigger named actor on a more important role.

 

Ser Bryndon ”The Blackfish” Tully is another one of the Tully clan that first appeared in book 1 of the series but has waited until season 3 to make his television debut. Bryndon is Catelyn’s uncle, her father’s younger brother, and the black sheep of the family. He had been assigned to protect Catelyn’s sister, Lysa, at the Vale but joined Catelyn after the whole debacle that was Tyrion’s trial. Joining with Catelyn and Robb Stark, Bryndon became a part of Robb’s war council in the books and helped capture Jamie Lannister at the Battle of the Whispering Woods. Thankfully, nothing in the TV show has truly contradicted this and Bryndon should be able to sneak in comfortably like his nephew, Edmure. Played by British actor Clive Russell, this casting seems rather great, with Russell having his fair share of fantasy characters already on his resume. Russell has been in shows like the Mists of Avalon, Merlin, and King Arthur, and even has the Geek creds of playing Perry Coleman on Waking The Dead.

Bringing Daenerys story back towards the book, after a very crazy departure last season, we see Nathalie Emmanuel cast as Daenerys’ slave, Missandei. Missandei is a very educated slave with a knack for linguistics. She first appears in the 3rd book as a slave in Astapor, where we shall likely meet up with her when season 3 of the TV series begins. Understandably, HBO has chosen not to portray her as a 10-year old girl in the TV series, with the obviously much more adult English actress Nathalie Emmanuel. Nathalie doesn’t have as large of a film or television background as some of her Game of Thrones co-stars, with most of her work being on the Channel 4 soap opera, Hollyoaks, and a brief appearance in season 3 of E4′s Misfits. However, she does have a cute look and will likely do the role justice.

 

One character that will be portrayed around her proper age is King Stannis’ daughter, Shireen Baratheon. Shireen technically makes her first appearance in the second book, but her appearances early on are so minor that it makes perfect sense for her to have been cut out of season 2. To be honest, the character doesn’t even really need to be in the TV series, but I’m glad they threw her in anyway. The only child of King Stannis Baratheon, Shireen is not a pretty little girl and that is worsened by the grayscale that has covered half her face in an uncharming amount of dead skin. Kerry Ingram has the misfortune of portraying this poor girl, as the barely 13-year old actress moves up from her Laurence Olivier Award winning performance in Matilda to the grim role in Game of Thrones.

Another Baratheon attached to Stannis will also appear in season 3, as Stannis’ wife, Selyse Baratheon finally gets some screen time to make up for all the cheating that went on in season 2. Like her daughter, Selyse first appeared in Clash of Kings but played such a minor role there was no reason for HBO to put her in front of the camera. Her sole purpose was to be responsible for Stannis Baratheon associating himself with Melisandre, the Red Woman. HBO did a decent job replacing her presence with a few well scripted lines, but now it appears they need to put a face to the poor girl who was being cheated on by her king and priestess. To do this they’ve casted Tara Fitzgerald, who is much cuter than any of the descriptions written for Selyse. Tara has starred in Waking The Dead and The Virgin Queen.

 

Now one of the bigger characters edited to appear very lightly in the TV series so far is Beric Dondarrion. These edits are not upsetting because Lord Beric was truly a big character, but rather they are irking because he is part of a major storyline all but passed over in season 1 but likely to play a big role in season 3 &4 as it was a big part of book 3. We have already seen Lord Beric played by David Michael Scott in episode 6 of season 1, but it is understandable if you don’t remember his 30 second role. Beric is assigned by Ned Stark to hunt down Ser Gregor Clegane (The Mountain That Rides) for his crimes against the Riverlands, which we later learn are the first attempts by Tywin Lannister to start a war. Richard Dormer will now take over as Lord Beric for his much more important role, leading the Brotherhood Without Banners, a group whispered and rumored about in the second book and unfortunately unheard of in season 2 of the show. Expect them to show up when next we see Arya Stark. Some of you might remember Richard Dormer from his role on the BBC series Hidden, however it is likely most of you have not heard of the dashing Irish actor.

Joining Lord Beric, both as a character mentioned but hardly shown in season 1 of Game of Thrones and part of the Brotherhood Without Banners, is the Red Priest, Thoros of Myr. Thoros fought in the tournament of the hand in Game of Thrones (though did not appear in the show) and was later sent off with Lord Beric to hunt down Gregor Clegane. He is a Red Priest, much like Melisandre, known for lighting his sword on fire before entering battle. Thoros will be played by English comedian Paul Kaye in season 3, after having recently starred in Malice in Wonderland, Massive, and Waking The Dead.

 

Another member of Lord Beric’s group of outlaws is a younger archer named Anguy. Anguy plays a relatively minor role in the third book, where he first appears, and should appear in the TV series about the same way he did in the books. Portrayed by Philip McGinley, the English actor who played Tom Kerrigan in Coronation Street, the casting looks pretty fitting for the character description.

 

Thomas Brodie-Sangster has the hard task ahead of him of playing a character that definitely should have been introduced in season 2,  Jojen Reed. Jojen is one of the crannogmen, a group of nomadic northerners that pledge to House stark. He is a young pre-teen boy who was sent along with his sister to Winterfell in the second book to serve Bran. When all the problems occurred in Winterfell at the end of season 2, Jojen and his sister were supposed to be right by Bran, Rickon, Hodor, and Osha, playing rather important roles as Bran’s guide. Jojen has something called ‘the greensight’, which basically allows him a cloudy view of the future. Thomas Brodie-Sangster should be up to the job though, with an impressive career in film that features movies like Love Actually, Nanny McPhee, The Last Legion, and the voice of Ferb Fletcher in Phineas and Ferb. While Thomas may be 22 in real life, he has a young enough look to make this casting work perfect.

 

Ellie Kendrick was cast as Jojen’s sister, Meera Reed. Much of Meera’s story in the books mirrors her brothers, so if you read what we had to say about Jojen, you have a basic idea already about Meera and why you should be disappointed HBO didn’t throw her in the show last season. Meera lacks the greensight her brother has, but is a skilled warrior for a girl in her mid-teens, and is a great hunter. Bran might also fancy her a wee bit. Because of that, the British actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the 2009 BBC mini-series (as well as Waking The Dead), Ellie Kendrick should be an ideal casting job. Ellie has a uniquely cute appearance and could possibly pull off Sangster’s older sister rather well.

 

Playing Mance Rayder’s chief lieutenant, Tormund Giantsbane, is the Norwegian actor Kristofer Hivju. Tormund is a big, broad, bearded warrior from north of the wall who will play a big role in the story of the Nightwatch. So who better than the already bearded and broad northerner that played Jonas in The Thing, Kristofer Hivju. Not much to say here other than damn good casting in my eyes.

 

Finally we have Anton Lesser cast as the ex-maester, Qyburn. Qyburn first appeared in the tiniest of roles in Clash of Kings, and including him in the second season of Game of Thrones would have just been an absurd nod to the characters later role; utterly unnecessary for the story. Never-the-less, Qyburn does become somewhat of a big deal as the story progresses and what he does in book 3 and season 3 might surprise some fans of a certain Lannister. Qyburn is the maester of Harrenhal and a member of the Brave Companions. Playing the aged ex-maester with questionable motives is the rather talented English Shakespearean actor, Anton Lesser (who oddly has also worked on Waking The Dead). Lesser’s many Shakespearean roles might serve him well next season.